Teresa Lee - Graduate Student

125 Koshland Hall
(510) 643-5582
teresalee@berkeley.edu

Mailing Address:
University of California Berkeley
16 Barker Hall, MC 3204
Berkeley, CA 94720-3204

During meiosis, chromosomes undergo complex morphological changes that facilitate proper segregation of chromsomes. Crossover recombination is critical for the segregation of homologs, as well as the generation of novel allelic combinations. Segregation failure causes aneuploidy, an error in chromosome number that is the source of tumorigenesis, birth defects like Down's syndrome, or even death for resulting embryos. Due to their importance, COs are subject to a strict control that guarantees at least one CO per homolog pair and ensures wide spacing between multiple COs. Although this regulation has been observed for almost a century, its precise mechanisms remain a mystery.

The nematode C. elegans provides an elegant system to study CO control, for each homolog pair only has one CO per meiosis. Condensins are complexes responsible for structuring chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis. Since condensins are able to cause chromosome-wide changes in chromatin structure, they provide an attractive means for global CO regulation. Previous work in the lab has shown that disruption of condensin I in early meiosis causes chromosomal axis extension, which correlates with changes in DSB distribution and increases in DSB and CO number. I am investigating the role that chromosome structure, as mediated by condensins, plays in crossover regulation.

Honors:
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2009